(Percy's POV)
A Coast Guard boat picked us up, but they were too busy to keep us for long, or to wonder how three kids in street clothes had gotten out into the middle of the bay. There was a disaster to mop up.
Their radios were jammed with distress calls. They dropped us off at the Santa Monica Pier with towels around our shoulders & water bottles that said I’M A JUNIOR COAST GUARD! & sped off to save more people.
Our clothes were sopping wet, even mine. When the boat had appeared, I’d silently prayed they wouldn’t pick me out of the water & find me perfectly dry, which might’ve raised eyebrows. So I’d willed myself to get soaked. Sure enough, my usual waterproof magic had abandoned me. I was barefoot too, since I’d given my shoes to Grover. Better the Coast Guard wonder why one of us was barefoot than wonder why one of us had hooves.
After reaching dry land, we stumbled down the beach, watching the city burn against a beautiful sunrise. I felt like I'd just come back from the dead-which I had. My bag was heavy with Zeus’s master bolt. My heart was even heavier from seeing my mother.
"I don’t believe it," Annabeth said. "We went all that way-"
"It was a trick," I said. "A strategy worthy of Athena."
"Hey," she warned.
"You get it, don’t you?" She dropped her eyes, her anger fading. "Yeah. I get it."
"Well, I don’t!" Grover complained. "Would somebody-"
Nora was silently thinking about something while we spoke.
"Percy..." Annabeth said. "I'm sorry about your mother. I’m so sorry..."
I pretended not to hear her. If I talked about my mother, I would start crying like a kid.
"The prophecy was right," I said. "You shall go west & face the god who turned.' But it wasn’t Hades. He didn’t want war among the Big Three. Someone else did the theft. Someone stole Zeus's master bolt, & Hades’s helm, & framed me because I’m Poseidon's kid. Poseidon will get blamed by both sides. By sundown, there will be a three-way war. And I’ll have caused it."
Grover shook his head, mystified. "But who would be that sneaky? Who would want war that bad?"
I stopped in my tracks, looking down the beach. "Gee, let me think."
There he was, waiting for us, in his black leather duster & his sunglasses, an aluminum baseball bat propped on his shoulder. His motorcycle rumbled beside him, its headlight turning the sand red.
"Hey, kid," Ares said, seeming genuinely pleased to see me. "You're supposed to die."
"You tricked me," I said. "You stole the helm & the master bolt."
Ares grinned. "Well, now, I didn’t steal them personally. Gods taking each other's symbols of power-that’s a big no-no. But you’re not the only hero who can run errands."
"Who did you use? Clarisse? She was there at the winter solstice."
The idea seemed to amuse him. "Doesn’t matter. The point is, kid, you’ve got to die in the Underworld. Then Old Seaweed will be mad at Hades for killing you. Corpse Breath will have Zeus’s master bolt, so Zeus’ll be mad at him. And Hades is still looking for this..."
From his pocket he took out a ski cap-the kind bank robbers wear-& placed it between the handlebars of his bike. Immediately, it transformed into a bronze war helmet.
"The helm of darkness," Nora gasped.
"Exactly," Ares said. "Where was I? Oh yeah, Hades will be mad at both Zeus & Poseidon, cause he doesn’t know who took this. Soon, we got a nice little three-way slugfest going."
"But they’re your family!" Annabeth protested.
Ares shrugged. "Best kind of war. Always the bloodiest. Nothin like watching your relatives fight, I always say."
"You gave me the backpack in Denver," I said. "The master bolt was there the whole time."
"Yes & no," Ares said. "It’s probably too complicated for your little brain to follow, but the backpack is the master bolt’s sheath, just morphed a bit. The bolt is connected to it, sort of like that sword you got, kid. It always returns to your pocket, right?"
I wasn’t sure how Ares knew about that, but I guess a god of war had to make it his business to know about weapons.
"Anyway," Ares continued, "I tinkered with the magic a bit, so the bolt would return to the sheath once you reach the Underworld. You get close to Hades...Bingo, you got mail. If you died-no loss. I still had the weapon."
"But why not just keep the master bolt for yourself?" I said. "Why send it to Hades?"
Ares got a twitch in his jaw. For a moment, it was almost as if he were listening to another voice, deep inside his head. "Why didn’t I... yeah...with that kind of firepower..." He held the trance for one second...two seconds...
I exchanged nervous looks with Nora.
Ares’s face cleared. "I didn’t want the trouble. Better to have you caught redhanded, holding the thing."
"You're lying," I said. "Sending the bolt to the Underworld wasn’t your idea, was it?"
"Of course it was!" Smoke drifted from his sunglasses, as if it was about to catch fire.
"You didn’t order the theft," I guessed. "Someone else sent a hero to steal the items. Then, when Zeus sent you to hunt him down, you caught the thief. But you didn’t turn him over to Zeus. Something convinced you to let him go. You kept the items until another hero came along & completed the delivery. The thing in the pit is ordering you around."
"I am the god of war! I take orders from no one! I don’t have dreams!"
I hesitated. "Who talked about dreams?"
Ares looked agitated, but he smirked.
"Let’s get to the problem at hand, kid. You're alive. I can’t let you take the bolt to Olympus. You just might get those idiots to listen. So, I'm gonna kill you. Nothing personal."
He snapped his fingers. The sand exploded at his feet. It was a wild boar, even larger & uglier than the one hanging above the cabin seven door at Camp. The beast pawed the sand, glaring at me as it lowered its razor- sharp tusks & waited for the command to kill.
I step in the surf. "Fight me yourself, Ares."
He laughed, but I heard an edge to his laugh, an uneasiness. "You’ve only got one talent, kid, running away. You ran from the Chimera, from the Underworld."
"Scared?"
"In your adolescent dreams."
"No direct involvement. Sorry. You’re not at my level."
The giant boar charged. As the boar rushed me, I uncapped my pen & sidestep. Riptide appeared in my hands. I slashed upward. The boar’s right tusk fell at my feet, while it charged into the sea. I shouted, "Wave!"
Immediately, a wave surged up & engulfed the boar, wrapping around it like a blanket. The beast squealed once. Then it was gone, swallowed by the sea.
I turned back to Ares. "Are you going to fight me now?" I asked. "Or are you going to hide behind another pet?"
Ares’s face was purple with rage. "Watch it, kid. I could turn you into-"
"A cockroach," I said. "Or a tapeworm. Yeah. That'd save your godly hide from being whipped, wouldn’t it?"
"Oh, man, you're really asking to be smashed into a grease spot."
"If I lose, turn me into anything you want. Take the bolt. If I win, the helm & the bolt are mine & you have to go away."
"How would you like to get smashed: classic or modern?" He sneered. I showed my sword.
"That’s cool, dead boy," he said. "Classic it is." The baseball bat changed into a huge, two- handed sword. The hilt was a large silver skull with a ruby in its mouth.
“Percy,” Nora said. "Don't do this. He’s a god."
"He’s a coward," I told her.
She said. "Wear this, at least. For luck."
She took off her necklace, with four years of camp beads & tied it around my neck.
"Zeus & Poseidon together." she said.
My face felt warm, but I manage a smile. "Thanks, Nora."
"Good luck Percy." Annabeth & Grover said giving me a hug.
Cliffhanger ;)
I'm kidding 😊...I'll upload soon...
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Alice signing off.
XOXO.